CS Getting In-game Ads - Valve Sells Out

CS Getting In-game Ads - Valve Sells Out
December 9th, 2006 by Armin Siljkovic

It had to come at some point. In-game advertising in one of the oldest online shooters out there, Counter-Strike 1.6. Valve’s Doug Lombardi confirmed that in-game advertising, served by IGA, will appear in CS 1.6, and in CS:Source later on. He spoke to CS-nation about the ads, where he said,
“There will be some ads posted on walls in the game world, an ad on the scoreboard screen, and one in the letterboxed area of Spectator mode. Counter-Strike levels aren’t going to turn into Times Square or a Nextel Cup racecar. We have control over what ads show up in Counter-Strike and how they are presented.”
Counter-Strike is rapidly losing ground to more modern shooters like Battlefield 2, and this appears to be the worst Valve could do to the existing CS community.
Of course Valve defends it by claiming this decision was made together with the community, but that’s pure BS. No CS player would like to see in-game ads appearing all over the place. And let’s face it, just like any other game company these days, Valve follows the money. The little time I have for CS these days will certainly get lost to another game.
Via CS-nation